Underwhelming Supernatural Horror Rosario (2025) Attempts to Grapple with Identity

Title: Rosario

First Non-Festival Release: May 2, 2025 (Theatrical Release)

Director: Felipe Vargas

Writer: Alan Trezza

Runtime: 88 Minutes

Starring: Emeraude Toubia, José Zúñiga, David Dastmalchian

Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here

A lot can be misunderstood about the immigrant experience as every story is unique to the culture of the person immigrating and the country in which they will soon call home. In the United States, there’s a tricky balance that haunts those forced to walk between two worlds: the home of their ancestors and the home of their children.

This is what secretly haunts the back of Rosario’s (Emeraude Toubia) mind. A successful businesswoman in the present, Rosario has long distanced herself from her grandmother until her death forces her to traverse through a blizzard to her childhood home. Grappling with her mixed feelings of guilt and the practical issues of responding during a freak storm, Rosario’s bad night only gets worse when strange things begin happening in her grandmother’s home. Unable to leave the building thanks to the elements and unwilling to slink in one of the shady neighbor’s places, Rosario must brave the night with her grandmother’s corpse and the presence in the apartment that wants to harm her.

Serviceable supernatural thrills punctuate the familiar sojourn into the supernatural in 2025’s Rosario.

Every step of the way, Rosario takes safe choices in telling its story about the horrors of being caught between cultures. The mere presence of genre tropes, cliches, or ideas is not inherently self-terminating for a horror film, but it can clue audiences in to the quality if it relies on these tools too often. Unfortunately, Rosario is an offender. Telegraphing every twist, indulging in tired stereotypes, and overdone scare sequences make it an irritating watch.

As a character, Rosario fails to make much impact, even in her own story. Serving as a stand-in for second generation immigrants praying to disconnect from their culture for a chance of assimilation, Rosario herself is a self-absorbed executive whose success is attributed to distancing herself from that culture. Rosario refuses to participate in her culture, attributing it to fairy tales and mysticism. It’s only when her life is threatened that she begins changing tune. As Rosario continues, this character arc is expanded until she eventually embraces her identity. One of its twists works even harder to cement its messaging on legacy and responsibility, demonstrating there is intentionality with how this story is told. Admirable intentions aside, the story folds in on itself with how much it gets twisted to hell and back.

Cringeworthy dialogue and puzzling decisions make it harder to stay invested. There’s a distinct millennial quality to this work that cannot be ignored once it reveals itself. Draped in humor that requires Rosario to talk to herself constantly in the empty apartment, it’s hard to take the jokes seriously when they are almost always wrapped in a veneer of fake-quirkiness. Compounding with equally baffling story choices, Rosario fails to adequately contain or expand its story beyond the apartment without resorting to puzzling character choices. While the sincerity remains true throughout, the presence of so many issues makes it difficult to stand behind the indie haunter.

The cast does a fine job but can only do so much against the current of bad writing dragging down the project. Emeraude Toubia does fine as Rosario but is severely hampered by the writing. With much of the film resting on her shoulders, Toubia inspires sympathy mostly in her more physical work in the third act. David Dastmalchiqn does good work in a bit part but is easily forgotten thanks to his character’s limited impact on the story.

There’s nothing wrong with familiarity, but Rosario offers little new for experienced genre fans and casual filmgoers alike. An affable enough performance from Toubia and well-meaning social commentary aren’t enough to save Rosario. Cringeworthy writing, reliance on cliches, and tonal whiplash make it difficult to recommend. Generic, listless, and not scary, this haunted apartment escapade is one you can take or leave with you when hunting for your next supernatural horror.

Overall Score? 5/10